Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin reads the murder charges filed against John Felix for the killing of two Palm Springs Police Officers at a press conference held at the Riverside County District Attorney Office. (October 12, 2016)
Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

A vigil was held for fallen Palm Springs Police officers Jose Gilbert “Gil” Vega and Lesley Zerebny in front of the Palm Springs Police Department on Sunday. The two officers died in the line of duty on Saturday. (October 9, 2016)
Richard Lui/The Desert Sun

A neuropsychologist testified Tuesday that poor verbal skills, along with potential amnesia, may put an ex-con charged with the ambush killings of two Palm Springs police officers “at risk” of being mentally incompetent to stand trial.

John Hernandez Felix is accused of fatally shooting veteran training Officer Jose Gilbert Vega, 63, and rookie Officer Lesley Zerebny, 27, last Oct. 8. Criminal proceedings against him have been suspended since May, when his attorneys declared doubts regarding his competence.

To obtain a mental incompetency finding from a judge, Felix’s attorneys need to provide “substantial evidence” that their 27-year-old client, who’s being held without bail, does not understand the nature of the criminal proceedings against him and cannot assist them in his defense.

Testifying in the mental competency bench trial for a second day, Dr. Hilda Chalgujian cited intelligence tests conducted on Felix that she said indicated he had poor verbal comprehension and verbal memory, potentially affecting his ability to process and retain information.

On Monday, she testified that she believes Felix’s traumatic amnesia claim, in which he contends that he has no memory of shooting anyone but remembers what brought the officers to his home and recalls his arrest following a 12-hour standoff.

Chalgujian said that Felix’s “sub-average intelligence” and documented substance abuse could have contributed to poor memory. However, she conceded Monday during questioning by the prosecution that Felix could be inventing the memory lapse and that claims of traumatic amnesia were more common in suspects of violent crimes, particularly homicides and attempted homicides. She also could not recall an instance during her career when traumatic amnesia affected the suspect, rather than the victim, of a violent crime. Assistant District Attorney Michelle Paradise questioned Chalgujian on her association with defense attorney John Dolan’s California Desert Trial Academy, an Indio-based school where he serves as dean. In addition to practicing psychology for about 30 years, Chalgujian is a fourth-year law student at the academy and works as a law clerk under Dolan, but said she is receiving no compensation for furnishing her report on Felix, nor was she promised anything with regard to her academic career.

Chalgujian said she consulted with a mentor, a retired judge, who told her it would be OK to testify as an expert witness despite her position at Dolan’s office.

Two other psychologists, Drs. William H. Jones and Michael Kania, testified Monday that they felt Felix was competent to stand trial.

Jones testified that Felix told him he was suffering from hallucinations and “presented himself as a childlike person who did not understand why he was being incarcerated.”

However, Felix’s familiarity with the criminal justice system through his prior convictions was part of what led Jones to conclude that Felix understood what he was facing. Jones said that after talking with the defendant, he “believed (Felix) had more understanding than he was admitting.”

Jones said there were no indications that Felix suffered any emotional trauma consistent with traumatic amnesia.

Kania testified that Felix said he was aware that he was potentially facing the death penalty and that he didn’t believe Felix was being entirely truthful with him during portions of their interview in July.

Both Jones and Kania also said that even if Felix were diagnosed with amnesia, it should not affect his ability to assist his attorneys.

Riverside County Superior Court Judge Anthony R. Villalobos will hear closing arguments from both sides on Thursday morning. Along with testimony, Villalobos will consider the evaluations conducted by Chalgujian, Jones and Kania, along with intelligence tests conducted on Felix by the Palm Springs Unified School District when he was 14 years old, in making his ruling.

Felix is accused of shooting Vega, Zerebny and a third officer through the metal screen door of his home when they responded to a family disturbance call. He also allegedly fired on two of their colleagues, who were not struck by the gunfire.

“This individual knew what he was doing. His actions were deliberate. He attacked these officers for no other reason than they were there, answering a call for service,” Hestrin said when the charges were announced last fall.

Vega and Zerebny were the first Palm Springs police officers killed in the line of duty since Jan. 1, 1962, when Officer Lyle Wayne Larrabee died during a vehicle pursuit. The only other death in the department was that of Officer Gale Gene Eldridge, fatally shot Jan. 18, 1961, while investigating an armed robbery.

Vega had been with the department for 35 years -- five years past his retirement eligibility -- and had planned to finish his career last December. He had eight children, 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Zerebny had been with the department for a year and a half and had just returned to duty from maternity leave after the birth of a daughter, Cora, four months before her death.